


Secant

by Anonymous



Category: Star Wars Original Trilogy, Star Wars Prequel Trilogy
Genre: M/M, Time Travel
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-03-25
Updated: 2019-03-25
Packaged: 2019-12-07 06:06:58
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,662
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18230951
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/
Summary: Luke travels back in time.





	Secant

**Author's Note:**

  * For [shanlyrical](https://archiveofourown.org/users/shanlyrical/gifts).



Luke had to admit to himself, travelling through time was not the strangest thing to have happened to him during his life, though he also had to admit it cracked the top five. One minute he was looking through old Jedi texts, seeking answers to his problems in the present by exploring the past. The next minute, he found himself in that past, accompanied by a brand new set of problems.

Coruscant differed little from the seething metropolis he recalled: a jewelled wonder atop a rank layer cake of poverty. The HoloNet newsfeeds displaying images of Jedi were new. The scroll at the bottom of the screen offering a newsbite about Chancellor Palpatine was new. He discovered the date by asking, earning a scornful glance from the Abednedo dignitary who replied.

'Go sleep it off,' he said, and shoved Luke away. Luke's clothes were rougher than the fine garments worn by the swarming figures around him, making him appear to be another vagabond rather than a Jedi. He wrapped his cloak around himself and shuffled away, the better to complete the image.

As the man had spoken, the HoloNet feed had changed. For a moment, a boy's face flashed across every flickering screen, standing next to a striking man with reddish hair. The scroll said the pair were on Coruscant now.

Luke had visited the Jedi Temple years ago, or years from now as the timeline flowed. He knew the way, and reached it easily. He gave the guards the name Luke Lars and a story about having been in the Outer Rim for the past few decades. His easy lies were close enough to the truth to pass the quick probe. Inside, he wandered the halls, watching with a mix of fascination and sorrow as he was surrounded by other people like him, all of whom were doomed.

The two most doomed sat together in the dining hall. Luke stood in the entranceway for a long moment, watching them. He'd seen images of Obi-Wan in his youth, most of them clips from newsreels from the war. He'd seen only two images of his father before the mask, one from his childhood that Grandmother had kept and passed to Uncle Owen, and a hologram from shortly before everything had gone wrong. The rest were lost, or destroyed during Vader's long eradication of his own past. None had captured him this way, as a handsome youth on the edge of manhood, The anger that would eventually consume him was today only a crinkle at the edge of his eyes as he laughed out loud at something his Master said.

A terrifying possibility opened before Luke as he stood there. Before him sat, if not the architect of the galaxy's downfall, certainly its most willing actor in the catastrophe. Objectively, the timeline Luke had lived through would only be improved by the absence of Darth Vader's dark presence. The Emperor had schemes within schemes. Denying him the powerhouse of Anakin's gifts by striking him down before he had a chance to use them might delay those schemes until they had no hope of fruition.

But Anakin was only a boy, and Luke was not the man to bring himself to kill him, would he even be able to without erasing his own existence and Leia's, and though his own non-existence held no fears for him, the thought of hers was intolerable. Thinking on it, he might be able to do nothing. Destiny might interfere with any actions he took now. Destiny certainly hadn't done him any favours up to now.

He made a choice.

Luke stepped into the dining hall unheeded until he took a chair at the small table with Anakin and Obi-Wan. They turned to him, confused, both sets of hands dropping to their belts. Luke raised his hands, then set them on the tabletop.

'I don't have a weapon.'

Anakin stared at him. 'I know you.'

Obi-Wan turned to his apprentice. 'You do?'

'I think I do.' He seemed unsure, the vague anger in his eyes returning. He always had that, ever since his youth.

'We met once on Tatooine,' Luke said, a sudden plan forming, a delirious plan. 'You were a little boy. I'm surprised you remember me.'

'You're from Tatooine?'

Obi-Wan said, 'Anakin is from Tatooine, but you appear to be from much further away.' His eyes took in much about Luke, but Obi-Wan always had been able to see through him.

'I lived there for a long time. I've come with an urgent message. You have to come to your mother. Now.'

Anakin stood, and Obi-Wan almost as quickly. 'Anakin, this isn't the time to run off.'

'Seems like the perfect time, Master.'

Obi-Wan said, 'I can't let you go.'

Luke touched his arm, his joy at seeing his old friend making him even more reckless. 'Then come with us. You can assure yourself that Anakin is in no danger from me. But we must hurry.' He'd visited his grandparents' graves enough to remember the dates. If they left now, they would easily reach the homestead before Grandmother was abducted. She would never be taken, never be hurt by the sandpeople, and her son would never carry the pain of having lost her. It might be enough to save him.

'Please,' Luke said. 'This is the only way.'

Convincing Obi-Wan wasn't as hard as Luke had feared. He remained suspicious of Luke, though this only convinced him he must join them on the journey to keep an eye on his padawan. 'You haven't been back to the Temple in a long time,' he noted as Luke gave one last sad glance around while they made their way to the hangar.

'It has been years.'

'That might explain why I don't seem to know your face. I almost think I should. And I never met anyone from Tatooine except Anakin.'

'As far as you know,' Anakin countered. 'Master, you can sense the good in him as easily as I can. Luke doesn't mean us any harm. I can tell.' He smiled at look with a trusting, sunny expression. For a moment, he wasn't the man who would control the galaxy by fear, and he wasn't Luke's father yet to be. He was just a handsome youth smiling at Luke with a hint of flirtatiousness that echoed inside places Luke had long accepted would remain empty. It had been a very long time since a handsome youth had smiled at him that way.

Perhaps it was a smile meant to annoy Obi-Wan. That would explain it. One of the things Luke had learned was that the Master and Apprentice relationship reflected a sibling arrangement as often as it did a parental one. Anakin was teasing his staid brother by flirting with the older man whisking them off to adventure together, that was all.

Luke told himself this story through the first leg of their trip, even as Anakin breezed him into conversation, and Luke told what little he could. Obi-Wan seemed less and less enthused about their trip as time passed, finally retiring early to his bunk in the back.

When he was asleep, and the cool wave of his slumber touched both of their minds, Anakin changed the smile he'd been wearing. 'I need to ask you something. I'll know if you're lying, but I need to know.'

Worry clenched inside Luke's chest, but he said, 'Ask.'

'Are you my father?'

Luke blinked. 'What?'

Anakin fixed him with a pointed stare. 'You're so familiar. I can almost see myself in your face. You know my mother, and you've been watching me with this expression I can't explain, almost as though you care about me even though we've never met.' He bit his lower lip nervously. 'Are you my father?'

Luke fought off the strange mirth that wanted to burst out in a laugh that could only hurt. 'No. I can one hundred percent guarantee I am not your father, Anakin.' He saw the disappointed look on the boy's face. 'I'm sorry if that's the reason you came along.'

'No, I want to see my mother. You said she needs me.'

'She does. She misses you terribly.'

Anakin nodded. 'What colour are her eyes?'

Luke flashed back to the few holograms he remembered of his grandmother, but her face had been far away, and he wasn't sure.

Anakin didn't wait for him to come up with a lie. 'You've never met her.'

He took a breath. 'You have to go see her now. I swear it's important.'

'Who are you?'

'Someone who cares about you deeply. I'm not your father, Anakin, but believe me, there is no one in the galaxy right now who wants you to be happy more than I do.'

Anakin kissed him. It was fast and clumsy, and full of the same giddy teenage thrill Luke remembered from too long ago. His body responded before his mind could catch up. 'What are you doing?'

'You love me.'

'Yes, of course,' Luke said without thinking, without being able to lie even if he had thought about the answer.

'You're not my father. Mother didn't have any brothers. You're not from the Temple, and you're not my Master.'

He fell back on the lore, clinging to it instead of telling Anakin the full truth, and cursing the way his body betrayed him now. 'Jedi aren't supposed to do any of this.'

'But you have, haven't you.' It was not a question which meant Luke didn't have to lie about the answer. 'Obi-Wan doesn't have to know. Nobody does. It'll be fun.'

This was the worst plan Luke had ever come up with. Anakin leaned in and kissed him again, his mouth tasting of hope and destiny and new paths. Seduce him now, and his whole life might change, and the galaxy would follow. And he was very handsome, and Luke loved him so much.

Luke kissed him back.


End file.
